Star Craft 2

Damn it!!! I have to dig out my old SC discs and register them on Battle.net. The good news is once I do I can DL those to any comp I want, woot! But here's the deal SC2 is prepparing to go to beta. That's right 10 years in the making SC2, the holy grail of RTS is going to beta. For those of you that don't know gonna give a brief history.

Star Craft came out 31 March 1998. It became an instant success featuring a 3 way galactic combat between the Terran (aka Human), the Protoss (an energy based lifeform), and the Zerg (an evolving purely biological lifeform). The Terran were industious and cunning, the Protoss were intelligent and wise, and Zerg were young and filled with rage. The game revolved around soem pivotal main character including Jim Raynor, Arcturus Mengsk, Sarah Kerrigan (later to be called the Queen of Blades), Zeratul, Tassadar, and Fenix; as well the all powerful Overmind which controlled the zerg and nameless cerebrits that served it. Ultimatley the game comprissed of several plot elements. First was the creation of the Zerg and their release upon the galaxy this was pared with the over through of the current Terran government which was held responsible for it. Next was the survival of the Protoss and the legacy of their creators the Xel'naga. After the overthrough of the government the plot shifts to being about the new government which is even worse then the prior one, and the sacrifices made to create it, including the sacrifice of Sarah Kerrigan to the Zerg. The Zerg then focus on rebuilding her into a Terran Zerg hybrid, who eventually, after the demise of the Overmind, takes control of the Zerg forces as the demonic Queen of Blades.

The game spawned one expansion which continued the storyline of Kerrigan and Raynor, and told the legend of how the Protoss rebuilt their empire. It also talks about a group from Earth willing to take advantage of the situation to try to claim the area under the command of the Untied Earth Directorate, ultimatley their plot if foiled by the Zerg swarm who even prevents them from retreating. At the end of the expansion is a moment of remorse as the UED commander leaves a message to his wife about the event that took place out here, he does so to explain why he is commiting suicide, however as his fleet is eventually destroyed by the Zerg his message never does reach his wife. The Queen of Blades gives her allies and enemies a reprieve as she plans her next move.

There was a five year wait before even the thought of creating more Starcraft stories entered someones mind. It happened in a most unusual way. Instead of a RTS the next Starcraft game was going to be an action game called Starcraft: Ghost featuring a new character named Nova. It was to be based 4 years after the events of the original game, as the Dominion battles the Zerg. However, due to World of Warcraft and the eventual resignation of almost every person who worked on Starcraft (becuase of WoW) to make Arenanet and evenutally Guild Wars, the game never came to be. It has been put on indefinete hiatus. However, a book about Nova's story was released and a graphic novel and another book are in the works. She has been spotted in some of the SC2 content released so far.

It is unclear how much time has passed in the story between the original game and Starcraft 2, but Jim Raynor is still around and a bit down on his luck. The Protoss are also regrouping and adapting to the younger races understanding of warfare. And the Zerg have reemerged led by the Queen of Blades. It starts with the discovery of Xel'naga artifacts and a prophecy that Zeratul believes means the return of the Xel'naga and the destruction of the galaxy.

In the more technical light we see a much improved graphics engine with 3D rendering allowing you to move in those thre dimensions around the battle field. New concepts of land and terrain and how to use them to your advantage. However, it is still SC as the general look and feel still seem to be liek the original. Do expect to see new graphics, physics, and more. There are also quite a new amount of units, as well as some old classics. The SC universe is mush expanded, and while it still at times makes me think of Stargate it is definetly coming into its own.

Beta signups for are now available and beta will start in a few months. You need to have at least one game on a battle.net account to sign up. Which is why I am now looking for my SC CDs to get the key off of them. But I am hoping, as I always do, to get into the beta. Despite the bugs, the resets, the sudden loss of three hours worth of work, I liek doing something that I feel benefits others down the road. So keep me your hopes for beta, of course with NDA none of you will know till right before the game comes out.

See from my perspective there are three games that are just brilliant, they are the zenith of their genres and those games are Half life, Starcraft, and Knights of the Old Repuublic. I never really heard that much good news about HL2, KotOR 2 was cut short and released with half the content. So for me seeing that SC2 is done right by being a true successor to the original game is important to me. Starcraft is one of those stories that pulls on you emotionally as well as intrigues you and makes you think. It was one of the few games that I think could and should be adapated to the screen, preferably the TV screen; but in itself it doesn't need to. It not just one uped other RTS of that era, it blew them away.

So even if I don't get into beta, here is to Starcraft and Starcraft 2. May your fans be many and playability long.